Musings From the Poolside (or What Happens in Vegas...Gets Blogged About Here)

Tip of the Day: Like a little kick in your eats? Try the new Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce from Tastefully Simple. So good if you can't eat Vegas buffets for dinner every night.

After a four-day journey to Las Vegas, I'm sleeping off the jet lag and getting back into the writing groove. But I didn't completely stop thinking about all things writing related while enjoying the good life. Here are some tidbits that crossed my mind while in Sin City.

1) Poolside Propaganda. While swimming in the hotel pool, I found something strange at the bottom: the first page of a novel. My friend fished it out and read it, intrigued by its words -- but there was no author or title info on the page. No headers or footers other than the page number. What the heck book was this? Why was the first page submerged? Then I had a brilliant thought: what if I purposely left the first page of my novel (when it's published) in places like waiting rooms, poolside cabanas, and restaurant lobbies -- but with the title and author on the page? Would it intrigue people to buy the book? I might have to try this tactic....

2) Silent Research Studies. Observing the books people read on airplanes, in the airport waiting areas, and at the poolside is interesting market research. I saw adult women reading EAT, PRAY LOVE; TWILIGHT; and Barbara Taylor Bradford. Men were reading Nelson DeMille and newspapers. My conculsion? Thanks to Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer, YA and MG are spreading far and wide to adults even in the land of adult entertainment!

3) Photographic Evidence. My sister just got her esthetician license and did me up some glamour shots. She's good, with her professional make-up and photographer's lamp. My question is, can I rely on these pics to be a good professional author photo if they were take with an 8 megapixel camera? Or do they look too "adult"? Should author photos for a YA/MG author be more "playful"? (And yes, I'm bragging about her photographic and make-up techniques as I do not look like this in real life.).




Deena, Miss Recently Repped